34-hour closure of Highway 138 planned to start Thursday

Wednesday

Jun 7, 2017 at 12:00 PMJun 8, 2017 at 8:26 PM

Kevin Trudgeon City Editor

Motorists will have to avoid Highway 138 east of Interstate 15 for 34 hours starting Thursday morning.

Part of the ongoing State Route 138 East Realignment Project, a planned closure from I-15 to Summit Valley Road will begin at 6 a.m. Thursday and last until 4 p.m. Friday to allow workers to complete pavement realignment work, according to Caltrans District 8 officials.

"The crew will be working on the temporary pavement during the full closure to move traffic away from the new alignment roadway," Caltrans Public Information Officer Tyeisha Prunty told the Daily Press. "It will allow (workers) to finish the new realignment without impacting traffic going forward."

Summit Valley residents will be directed around the closure by taking Summit Valley Road north to Ranchero Road, and then west to connect to I-15, according to maps provided by Caltrans.

A $23 million project that involves widening and straightening the road, work began in September 2016 to remove several curves and steep grades in order to reduce a 3-mile stretch from I-15 to Summit Post Office Road.

The project also includes constructing outside shoulders, three bridges and three wildlife crossings, with Highway 138 remaining a two-lane road with one lane in each direction, according to previous Daily Press reports.

The realignment project will improve operational efficiency and upgrade and widen existing lanes and shoulders to current standards, according to officials. The existing highway’s configuration has many nonstandard horizontal and vertical curves, and grades as steep as 15 percent.

The existing pavement is from 21 feet to 28 feet wide, with no paved shoulders and narrow or nonexistent earth shoulders.

Once completed, the speed limit will be 55 mph, compared to the current 15-20 mph on some of the switchbacks and hairpin turns.

Officials said the current roadbed doesn’t meet any state standards, but the new highway will have full 12-foot lanes in each direction, plus full shoulders of 8 to 10 feet each. Once completed, the 22-foot-wide paved roadway will increase to 40 feet.

Kevin Trudgeon may be reached at 760-955-5358 or KTrudgeon@VVDailyPress.com.